To Catch a Pirate Read Online Free PDF Page B

conversation, she looked back out to sea. She liked Nathaniel. She was able to breathe normally around him. She didn’t grow warm. Her heart didn’t pound. Her lips didn’t tingle. Her knees didn’t grow weak.
    She turned back to Nathaniel. “I think I shall retire. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
    “Good night, Anna.”
    She left him there and made her way to her cabin. She removed her clothes and slipped on her nightgown before climbing into her bunk.
    Now that she had captured James Sterling, perhaps at long last she would finally drift into sleep without dreaming about him.

Wearing a blue ball gown, Annalisa crept through the shadowy passageway. At its end was a door. Around its edges was an unnatural glow. That eerie light prevented her from being immersed in total blackness.
    The hallway was ominously silent. No sound whatsoever.
    Fog swirled at her feet. A chill swept through her as she reached for the door handle. She pressed it. While she heard no click, she knew she’d unlatched the door. She pushed. It opened, beckoning her in.
    She stepped through the portal. Her breath caught. Gold. Mounds and mounds of gold, diamonds, emeralds. All spilled at her feet. It sparkled and glittered. Almost blinding her.
    Then she saw the most beautiful necklace she’d ever seen. A dozen rubies formed a triangle. She picked it up and secured it around her throat. The red stones lay warm against her chest.
    She turned. There was a gilt-framed looking glass. Her gown was low, her shoulders bare. The necklace was gorgeous, with nothing to detract from its beauty.
    A slap echoed around her. Crimson flowed from one of the rubies.
    Another slap. Another ruby wept and blood trailed over her skin.
    Another resounding slap —
    Annalisa jerked awake. She pressed her hand to her throat. The only necklace she wore was the one her mother had always worn.
    Another slap, muffled by her quarters, sounded.
    But she was awake now. The slaps were real.
    She clambered out of her bunk and grabbed her wrap. She was the only woman on board a ship full of men, most of them young. When she was above deck, she wore a plain brown dress that left her curves a mystery. Her belt held a light sword and a pistol. Nestled inside her boot was a dagger. She wore her hair in a single braid down her back. The breeze usually worked a few tendrils loose, but not so much that it became bothersome. A ship was not a London ballroom. She dressed appropriately, so she could move about unencumbered and swiftly.
    She’d made it a rule never to run about the ship unless she was properly dressed, but she knew she didn’t have time to worry over such things at the moment.
    Another slap filled the air.
    It was the only noise on the ship — and that’s what had her tearing out of her quarters. The unnatural silence. As though no man worked. As though no man was even aboard.
    She burst through the door that led onto the quarterdeck. Since it was one level up from the main deck, she had a good view of most of the ship. At the far end, men were gathered in a large cluster, but she could see over their heads.
    She could see the man with his arms raised high, his wrists tied to the foremast. She could see one of the crewmen, the burliest of the lot — Kane — holding the cat-o’-nine-tails, bringing it back, flicking it forward.
    “No!” she shouted.
    But he had his momentum, and the nine writhing lashes with their metal tips slapped against James Sterling’s bare back. The man hardly flinched.
    “Stop it!” she shouted repeatedly with each step she took as she pushed and shoved her way through the men, trying to reach the middle of the ship.
    When she finally made her way to the front of the gathering, Kane stood there breathing heavily, the tips of his whip having left a bloody trail against the planked flooring.
    Her pirate had his eyes squeezed shut, his jaw clenched, his hands balled into white-knuckled fists. But he made no sound. If it weren’t for the shallow